Harvard Square project provides unique venue for short films

Between students, workers, shoppers, street performers and tourists, 50,000 people pass through Harvard Square on an average day. That’s more than 18 million a year.

Ed Symkus

Between students, workers, shoppers, street performers and tourists, 50,000 people pass through Harvard Square on an average day. That’s more than 18 million a year.

“But are they looking?” asks Rory Keohane, co-founder of the graphic design studio Lumen Eclipse. Then he answers his own question. “Some are.”

He’s referring to the two big screens hanging near the top of the information kiosk smack in the middle of the square. Screens that might currently be showing Mike Mills’ wonderfully kinetic short film “Blonde Redhead” or Mitchell Rose’s graceful and funny “Deere John” anytime between dusk and 2 a.m.

For the past couple of years, the Somerville-based Lumen Eclipse — winner of the 2007 Small Business of the Year Award from the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce — has been displaying month-long exhibits on the 42-inch screens. There are always eight different films, between two- and eight-minutes long, on a loop, with10-second shots of logos between them from the Cambridge businesses that sponsor this public art project.

Keohane traces the idea back to when he helped a cousin launch the Central Square restaurant and bar River Gods a few years ago, where, in 2002, he introduced artists nights as a weekly event.

“I was booking the music down there and thought it would be fun to bring in some video work,” he says. “We’d curate shows with work from local artists and from artists around the country.”

Once Keohane got involved with the design company, the idea of putting video screens outdoors was floated. The screens went up at the kiosk in November 2005.

“It was about a year-long process,” recalls Keohane. “We had to talk to different neighborhood groups, the Business Association, the Historical Commission. Motion-based art isn’t very prevalent, so there was an education process. We showed them some samples from the club and gave them an idea of what short-form motion art could look like.

“We worked closely with the Office of Tourism and the City Manager’s Office and Economic Development,” he adds. “They helped us navigate the channels.”

Kate Holcomb is a recent addition to the four-person Lumen Eclipse. As program director of this unique public art gallery, she curates the work that goes on the screens.

“We put out calls for submissions, but people also track us down and submit their work,” she says. “And I’m trolling the Internet, looking for artists that I know about or have read about, then going through and looking for work. We’re trying to show a variety of works, so it’s film, video, animation, motion graphics.”

Holcomb points out that many of the short films come from artists all over the world. Two that they sought out are David Byrne and Brian Eno’s visually arresting and aurally hypnotic “Moonlight in Glory” and Yoko Ono’s stark black & white and irresistibly poppy “Walking on Thin Ice.”

“We came across those two and — all they can say is no — so we may as well ask them,” says Keohane. “Most of them have said yes. It’s an exhibition opportunity for them, and Harvard Square is an internationally known destination. It’s appealing to the artist to have their work shown publicly, in Harvard Square.”

But he admits that, because it’s such a transient area, he doesn’t know if everybody’s looking.

“There’s also been an education process with some of the people in the street,” he says. “If people see a screen, they initially think TV and advertising. So I think a lot of them don’t engage with it for what it is right away. But then you have them, and they become regular viewers.”

Keohane also knows that he only has them for brief periods.

“Someone came up with the analogy of a busker,” he says. “You stop and engage for a few minutes. You might listen to a song, or half a song. We’re not expecting people to stay there for the entire 30-45-minute loop.”

Keohane confesses that he sometimes, without revealing who he is, walks up to strangers who are intently staring at the screens, and says, “What do you think of this?”

He’s been very happy with the answers, but has found an easier way to gauge reactions with last November’s launch of monthly pre-screenings of the films at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge. The next one is scheduled for May 30.

“We call it ‘Le Peek,’ ” says Holcomb. “It’s a sneak peek of the upcoming show. We project all of the films there, and some of the filmmakers show up.”

“The nice thing about it is it allows us to meet people who know about the project,” says Keohane. “It’s a public forum to talk about it and get the feedback.”

With more and more people standing around watching the films, and a small number of businesses paying to have their Lumen Eclipse-designed logos featured between shows, Keohane is ready to find additional financial support for the project.

Over the past year Lumen Eclipse has applied for various grants for the project, and was recently given one by the Cambridge Arts Council.

“We’d like to grow the program in ways that we can support the artists and have them paid for creating new work,” continues Keohane. “That will come with growth in grants and sponsorship.”

They’d also like to keep the program going for a long time.

“We have a rental agreement with the Cambridge Office of Tourism for five years,” says Keohane. Then he smiles, knowing that he’d like that number to at least double, and adds, “for the time being.”

Lumen Eclipse’s public art project can be seen daily from dusk to 2 a.m. at the information kiosk in Harvard Square. The next free “Le Peek” is on May 30 at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, starting at 7 p.m. Call 617-800-2636.